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Tuesday, March 26, 2013

NYX One Night in Morocco... Naked Basics Alternative?

Hey everyone!

How's your Tuesday going? I've been playing with a few new makeup items, including this palette from NYX that came in my latest Hautelook order. A couple of weeks ago this "One Night in Morocco" kit was on sale for $9, and it regularly costs $15 on the NYX Cosmetics website. Just checked again, and it's down to $12 (this isn't a brand new palette in the line). I'm always up for some good neutral eyeshadows, and apparently if I ever decide to spend one night in Morocco, I'll be set with the perfect look (LOL). Folks, I'll look for any excuse when it comes to a new makeup purchase ;)

The palette (when folded up) is just slightly larger than the palm of my (small) hand, and has a mirror. There are 8 eyeshadows, an eyeshadow base, and a second layer drawer that pulls out to reveal four sheer lip colors.

For lip colors, you're getting a light pink, a medium pink, a coral, and what would appear to be plum, but it comes off much like the medium pink color. They don't show up a whole lot on the lips, but they do have a nice amount of shine.

Here I've swatched the shadows and also used the base that came with the palette. That neutral base really helps these shadows pop! I know the palette says "matte smokey look"- but not every shadow in this kit is matte. As you can see from the swatches, the grey in the upper right, and the light shades on the lower left and lower right have more of a satin, almost pearly finish. You could argue that a couple of the others have a slightly satin finish as well. But what's most important is how they actually look on the eyes, and I do believe they have an overall matte appearance. I think it's a great basic eye palette, and would also be good for those who don't want to pile a lot of frost or glitter onto aging/wrinkled skin around the eye area. Plus the deeper shades can make nice liners. I may encourage my mom to try this kit as well! I thought the blendability of the shades was wonderful, and I love that along with a bunch of cool greys, you also get a brown- that really helped me blend out the edges of my look.

I forgot to snap a pic of my look after it wash freshly applied, so you're seeing it now after almost 8 hours of wear (which may be even more beneficial to you- so you can see the staying power). I used the white around the inner corner, one of the pearly shades on the lid- and then layered the grey (in the upper right corner of the kit) over that and into the crease. I used a bit of black in the outer corner, blended the edges out with brown, and used one of the pearly shades as a highlight under the brow. As I mentioned, for the most part this look is matte, but the shadows didn't feel like typical dry, hard, chalky matte shadows. They blended with ease and clearly the look was able to make it through the day! (FYI: I'm not wearing the glosses from this palette- I'm wearing the new Estee Lauder Mad Men Collection lipstick!! I'll review it for you!)

As soon as I opened up the NYX palette for the first time yesterday, two words came to my mind: Naked Basics. Here you see the NYX palette along with Urban Decay Naked Basics Palette ($27, UrbanDecay.com). Naked Basics is also a mostly matte palette of neutral shadows. While of course the NYX palette isn't identical to it, I think it can give you some very similar looks, with the addition of more shades of grey (giggling as I type)... Anyway, here are some swatches.

On the top is the Urban Decay Naked Basics palette, and the NYX palette is on the bottom (some of the skintone shades kind of disappeared into my skin- I did not use a primer with either set of swatches here). I didn't do this to show side-by-side dupes, but just to give you an indication of what each palette contains. I think the Naked Basics is a great quality palette, but the NYX One Night in Morocco kit could definitely get you a similar look. The shadows are very easy to work with, plus you get a few bonus products like a primer and lip colors for less than half the cost of Urban Decay. If you're interested in some very specific shade dupes for Naked Basics- check out this video I did a few months ago. Thanks for reading! :)

Like I told you on Twitter, I just got the Naked Basics palette and at the point I hadn't tried it yet. Now that I have, I LOVE IT! It is now my go to shadow palette. Have you seen Urban Decay's Great and Powerful Wizard of Oz palettes? There is a Theodora one with greens and a Glinda one with pinks, purples and creams. I would love to know what you think. If you can find the Glinda one. I can't find it anywhere.-Cate from Random Crafty Georgia Girl @RndmCrftyGAGrl

Thanks for your post Emily! As always you are very informative and detailed with your reviews. I am looking into getting this palette! a gal doesn't need a reason to buy more makeup does she? haha <3Karina booksmartbeauty07.blogspot.com

Personally I do not like palettes that include lip products and although I like the NYX bubbles & caviar palette for neutral shades, nothing beats the UD Naked Basics as far as pigmention, color, lasting power, quality, etc. Going to pass on this but Thanks for the review!!

Thanks for the info! I'm finding more & more that NYX is good value and great quality! I've just discovered their cream matte lip glosses - so beautiful and pigmented.. so much so that I have to use a Q-Tip to apply! :D Kate

I love your reviews Emily .. U are the true inspiration behind my blog, I started watching your youtube videos and reading your blogs 3.5 years back, and now I feel so inspired that I have made my own blog .. Thanks for being so inspirational.. Loads of love from India :)

Emily, thank you for sharing. You are one of my favorites. Always look forward to watching you. Great info all the time. Just as a FYI, HaulerDeals is doing a discounts on NYX newer products such as their new eye shadows. Just thought I would share money saving on the new sets and new makeup.